Hythe police station goes on sale after homes scheme blocked

McCarthy Stone said it was no longer interested in the land at Jones Lane in Hythe after failing to gain planning permission to build more than 30 retirement apartments.

Two applications put forward by the company were rejected after sparking a large number of objections.

Now the boarded-up building, which has been branded an eyesore by locals, has been put on the open market by Hampshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Donna Jones.

The first of two McCarthy Stone schemes that were turned down by New Forest District Council (Image: McCarthy Stone)

Hythe councillor Malcolm Wade said: "It's sad to see Hythe police station in such a state when, as a working police station, it was a place for local people to report crime and get help from a local bobby."

READ MORE: McCarthy Stone 'withdraws interest' in former police station in Jones Lane, Hythe

Cllr Wade said the building should be sold to New Forest District Council and used to provide much-needed social housing.

"We need to build more affordable and social housing to give younger members of our community the option to have a home in the local area. It's virtually in the centre of Hythe, with shops and a transport hub on its doorstep."

Vicky Joynes, chairman of Hythe and Dibden Parish Council, voiced similar views.

She said: "This parish maintains that the site should either reopen as a police station, as others in Hampshire have, or be transferred to NFDC. We desperately need social housing for young local families."

The two-storey building, which closed in 2017, is being marketed by Lambert Smith Hampton and Vail Williams.

The second of two McCarthy Stone schemes that were turned down by New Forest District Council (Image: McCarthy Stone)

Their brochure says: "The site is situated to the west of the town centre and is within a surburban area characterised by semi-detached houses and a limited number of low-rise apartment blocks.

"To the north of the site is the marina village and to the west is public open space."

READ MORE: Plan to bulldoze former police station and replace it with housing take big step forward

A proposal to build 35 retirement flats on the site was rejected by the council in 2018 after sparking 76 letters of objection.

Cllr Allan Glass told fellow members of the planning committee that the proposed development resembled a "really ugly prison".

The overgrown and boarded-up building has been branded an eyesore by people living near the site in Jones Lane, Hythe (Image: Newsquest)

Cllr Ann Sevier added: “It looks rather like an industrial unit, not somewhere you would want to go and live.”

McCarthy Stone lodged an appeal but a government-appointed planning inspector upheld the council's decision in 2019.

The company went back to the drawing board and submitted a totally new design, only to see its revised scheme turned down in 2020.

The council said the proposed development would be disproportionately large and out of scale with other buildings in the area.

It added that the scheme would also harm the setting of the neighbouring Hythe Conservation Area.